Harper nude causes controversy in Kingston, ON

Imagine your surprise if you showed up to work one day to find a portrait of Prime Minister Stephen Harper—in the nude—hanging in your office. That’s what happened to Chief Librarian Patricia Enright of the Kingston, Ont. Public Library. The painting in question —“Emperor Haute Couture” — by local artist Margaret Sutherland depicts the prime minister reclining on a chaise lounge, surrounded by suited sycophants bearing Tim Horton’s coffee.

The Kingston Arts Council chose the painting as part of the council’s annual juried art salon, but Enright had no idea about the politically charged nature of the selection until it was brought to the library for public display. “It’s hysterical,” said Joan Heaton, the president of the Kingston Art Council. “It’s all in the same category of political cartoons that we see in the paper all the time.”

The painting hangs in a community space that is often rented for children’s recitals, so Enright had to get creative herself, covering up the painting with a cloth supplied by the artist whenever the room was rented out by all-ages groups.

How did the painting wind up at the library?
We have a meeting room that we make available to local artists on a monthly basis. For about 11 years now the Kingston Arts Council has a juried show, and so this month the jury from the Kingston Arts Council chose the Emperors Haute Couture as one of the works to be in the juried salon.

Did you know that this painting was coming to the library?
No we didn’t until we saw it after it had been chosen by the jury.

What were your thoughts?
Part of our policy is that as a public library we support intellectual freedom. But the room is used as a multiple-purpose room — it’s not a public gallery. It’s a meeting room for public recitals. The library board asked if we could either take it down or cover it up when we’re having children’s recitals. Because we did have a complaint last year about some female nudes that were in an artist’s show.

What are you doing with the painting now?
Right now its hanging in our room. Only during these recitals would we cover it, and then we have a sign that due to the fact that there will be children, it will be covered.

Will you be screening submissions differently in the future?
It will be up to the library board. We’ve had people weighing in on both sides. Some think it’s great that the library is doing this, and are concerned that we’re covering it. But we’ve also had people who’ve phoned in and been quite shocked and said its disrespectful to the prime minister.